


Gifts

by enigmaticagentscully



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, I know I'm as surprised as you are, Season five fic, and Niytavia if you reallly squint, fluff but not as fluffy as I expected, in which Jaha is not actually The Worst for once, some driveby Mackson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 22:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12219918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticagentscully/pseuds/enigmaticagentscully
Summary: Abby may have forgotten what day it is, but not everyone has. A Season Five bunker fic, featuring: Shameless Clothing Theft, Jackson Being Cute, The Fate of Sheep, Niylah being Niylah, An Unexpected Tree, and Marcus Kane Showing Off (A Bit)One-shot written for the Slackru Fluff Challenge :)





	Gifts

“Marcus... _Marcus_.”

“Mm?”

“It’s nearly seven, didn’t you say you wanted to be out of the door by seven thirty today?”

“Mm.”

Abby sighed as Marcus made absolutely no move to get up, instead nuzzling closer and drawing her snugly against his chest so that every inch of her body was flush with his. The two of them usually drifted apart during the night as they slept, but most mornings Marcus woke first, and Abby had gotten used to waking up on her side with the warm solid weight of him pressed against her back, his arm curled around her possessively and his face buried in her hair. It was a habit that had more than once caused them to be late in the mornings, due to what it inevitably led to.

It wasn’t that she _minded_ , exactly, but she seemed to remember Marcus having been pretty emphatic yesterday about being up early.

“You’re not going to have time to shower,” she said, in a token effort of admonishment.

“Five more minutes,” he mumbled into her neck.

“And here I always thought you were a morning person,” said Abby.

“That was before there was a beautiful, naked woman in my bed,” Marcus muttered. “I find it changes your priorities.”

In spite of his words, he did finally move, propping himself up on one elbow and leaning down to kiss her, ignoring her faint protestations about morning breath. Abby rolled onto her back into the warm space on the bed he had left to get an easier angle, and when they broke apart she was smiling up at him from between his arms.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning.” Marcus paused. “What time did you say it was?”

“Just before seven.”

“... _damn_.”

He leapt out of bed with an energy pretty impressive for so early in the morning, and headed towards the bathroom. Abby sat up in bed to watch him walk away – well, she was only human after all – and when she heard the shower turn on she decided she may as well get up too, although she wasn’t due in Medical until a bit later. She could at least read through some files she’d been putting off.

Still, Abby figured there wasn’t much point in getting dressed before she had a chance to grab a shower too. Both of them had taken to sleeping naked – they easily worked up enough body heat between the two of them to stay warm, she thought with a touch of smugness – but the bunker was kept at a steady temperature that made it a bit too cool to walk around undressed.

The nearest thing to hand when she got out of bed was the grey shirt Marcus had been wearing yesterday, hanging loosely over the back of a chair. Abby grabbed it and pulled it over her head without a trace of guilt. Marcus had another, cleaner shirt, and she needed this one. If he was going to start the day early and leave her alone with some dull reading material, he couldn’t begrudge her borrowing it.

Besides, it was cosy and it smelled like him, even if it was a little comically big on her.

She retrieved her datapad from the table and clambered back onto the bed, sitting cross legged in the middle as she brought up the information she needed. She couldn’t help but smile at the faint sounds of Marcus getting ready for the day in the next room; he had a tendency to hum in the shower that was very endearing. Abby entertained a brief desire to go and join him, but thought better of it. Water was one of the few things not in short supply down here in the bunker, and so though it would probably have been more economical for the two of them to shower together, there was no actual _need_ to do so. Besides, if she joined him now, he’d _definitely_ be late. Her smile grew wider at the thought.

Before, when she had imagined this – on the rare occasions she had _let_ herself imagine this – she had expected it to be... _harder,_ somehow. She had expected it to feel strange, after all those years of hostility, to find herself in love with Marcus Kane. Instead it felt so easy, so natural for them to be together, that it was almost as if they had in some way been headed here all along.

When Marcus emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, fully dressed and drying his hair with a towel, she was finally absorbed in her medical files, and glanced up only when she heard him stop in the middle of the room.

“Are you off then?” she asked.

 He stared at her for a moment and then sighed. “You’re not making this easy, Abby.”

“What did I do?” she said, surprised. “You’re the one who overslept, I don’t see how you can blame _me_ if you’re late.”

“But you’re making it much harder to leave,” said Marcus, with a rueful smile. “Looking like that. Wearing my shirt and nothing else, and your hair all—” He broke off helplessly.

Abby blinked at him. “What about my hair?” she said.

Marcus just closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. “I have to go,” he said, his eyes still closed in what Abby considered an unnecessarily theatrical manner. “I really do.”

“Your people need you,” agreed Abby, deciding if he was going to be so melodramatic, she might as well join in. “Leadership is a terrible burden to bear.” Some mischievous impulse made her add: “Shame, because otherwise you could have come back to bed and taken back your shirt, since you hate me wearing it so much.”

Marcus opened his eyes and glared at her, an effect somewhat softened by the fact that he was still smiling. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, and then crossed the room swiftly to perch on the edge of the bed and lean over to kiss her goodbye. Abby scooted closer so that she could wrap her arms around his neck and press her body against his as she kissed him back. Her fingers threaded through his hair, tugging lightly at the damp curls. Marcus made a soft noise of frustration in the back of his throat as she caught his lower lip softly between her teeth when they broke apart.

“Now you _are_ trying to make me late,” he grumbled, his hand caressing her back apparently without thought.

“I wouldn’t _dare_ , Chancellor,” said Abby, smiling innocently. “See you tonight.”

They released each other with no small amount of regret but Marcus was, if not actually immune to her charms, at least more accustomed to them by now, and made it to the door and out of it without any further distractions.

As soon as he was gone, Abby left the bed, padded over to the mirror in the bathroom and peered curiously at herself. Her hair...just looked messy. Maybe if you were feeling charitable you might call it ‘tousled’ but she couldn’t see anything to get particularly excited about. She grinned at herself in the mirror anyway before going back out into the bedroom, a little bounce in her step.

She had only just gotten back on the bed when, to her surprise, the door opened and Marcus appeared again, sticking his head round the doorframe with the air of someone who just had to get the last word in.

“Oh, by the way...” he said, and grinned suddenly, his eyes crinkling at the edges in that way she found so very, very attractive.

“Happy birthday, Abby.”

 

* * *

 

 

For the most part, it started like any other day.

It wasn’t due to be a busy day in Medical, though Abby knew as well as any doctor that a big part of their job was dealing with the unexpected. The _expected_ , today, was a morning of routine medical check-ups, followed by an appointment to remove a rotten tooth from a Trikru man which was going to be particularly unpleasant as it wasn’t the sort of thing they could spare anaesthesia for – even if they _were_ able to persuade the man to accept it, which was unlikely. Abby’s afternoon would be given over to collating and analysing data from various trials they were performing with herbal analgesics and comparisons between different methods of preparation and application across the clans. Although she was of course still on call if any emergencies came up – their staff was increasing but Medical was still mostly her and Jackson, plus a whole lot of apprentices who were eager to learn but hadn’t nearly the experience needed for more than the most basic procedures yet.

It wasn’t always the most glamorous job in the world, but after everything that had happened in the last year...it was actually nice just to be a doctor again.

The unexpected, however, turned up much sooner than usual, when Abby walked into medical, greeted Jackson and turned to find something slightly out of place on her desk.

“What’s this?”

She picked it up carefully; it was a little plant in a pot, tiny delicate yellow flowers surrounded by a spray of green leaves. It was beautiful in a startlingly out of place kind of way, a little burst of life and colour amongst the clinical steel and plastic corners of the room.

“Oh, that’s...” Jackson looked a little sheepish. “I got it from the hydroponic farm. Apparently they keep popping up in the vegetables, even though they can’t figure out where the seeds keep coming from. So it’s a weed, technically, but I thought it might brighten the place up. It’s not much but...”

“It’s lovely,” said Abby. She placed the plant carefully up on the shelf above her desk where it wouldn’t get knocked off. On impulse, she leaned over and kissed Jackson swiftly on the cheek. “Thank you, Jackson.”

Jackson smiled. “Happy birthday,” he said.

“I’m amazed you managed to keep track,” said Abby. “ _I_ didn’t even remember.”

“Or you would have taken the whole day off, right?” said Jackson. Abby glanced at him in surprise, and then realised that he was kidding.

“Are you making fun of me, Jackson?” she grinned.

“Oh no,” said Jackson innocently. “I’d be the last person to point out that you haven’t taken a day off work in your life and wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if you did.”

“Mmm hmm, and how about I take the day off right now and leave you with all the check-ups this morning?”

Jackson paused. “You liked the flowers, right?”

Abby laughed. “I love them. You’re lucky. Now who’s first on our list today?”

She couldn’t suppress the smile that stayed on her face even as Jackson walked off to bring in their first patient, snapping back into professional mode with the practised ease she had come to expect from him. In truth, he’d surprised her in more ways than one, and perhaps she should have come to expect that too – Jackson had been surprising Abby more and more recently. They’d always been close, but he had always used to keep a certain kind of respectful professional distance in some ways; the Jackson of just a couple of years ago would never have been able to tease her so easily. That was Nate’s influence, Abby thought, or maybe just the experience of coming to the ground in general. It had changed them all, one way or another. After a lifetime of being surrounded by the same familiar faces every day on the Ark, it had been very strange coming to the ground and meeting _new_ people...but in a way it was stranger still seeing the newness in the people she had known from before.

She thought of Jackson’s teasing smile, and Marcus humming in the shower, and the little yellow flowers popping up amongst their food crops, still gamely making a go of it hundreds of meters below the barren, irradiated earth.

Jackson was right. Even down here they brightened the place up.

 

* * *

 

 

Mealtimes in the bunker were never exactly a spectacular treat.

Life down here was like the Ark in many ways, and Abby could never decide whether that fact was worse for the former grounders who had never had to endure such conditions, or for those like her who had lived their whole lives dealing with them and had been granted only a brief taste of freedom before it was taken away again.

‘Taste’ being the operative word, in this case.

The bunker was about sufficient to the needs of those who currently occupied it, which was a blessing, she knew. But food was now necessarily about survival and nothing else. As their space was limited, almost the entire hydroponic farm was given over to growing high yield, high calorie crops that would provide as much nutrition as possible per square foot of growing space. They had not been able to justify the extra oxygen requirements of keeping animals of any kind in the bunker, not at the expense of human lives that might have taken their place, so all protein was of the plant variety, something that not all of those originally from the ground had been happy about.

It was a strange thing to mourn, given the appalling losses that the human race had faced this last year, but the possible final extinction of domesticated animals like chicken and sheep was something that nonetheless made Abby feel a little sad, when she thought of it. They hadn’t asked for this, and they were utterly blameless in what had been done to their planet.

On the other hand, from what she remembered from Natural Earth History, there were a lot of sheep in New Zealand, and no nuclear power plants. Maybe sheep were doing just fine on their own, somewhere. Maybe they were better off.

It was a nice thought.

In any case, Abby had easily fallen back into the routine of queuing up for rations that she had lived with all her life on the Ark, accepting tray after tray of uninspiring processed foods to eat while she looked over work. Some days – although she was careful not to let Marcus know this – she skipped her midday meal altogether, busy in Medical and unwilling to take a break long enough to go to the food hall to claim her rations for the day. Jackson often did the same. There was an understanding that any unclaimed rations would be distributed fairly among others, although of course anyone skipping meals too regularly would be noted and reported to Medical as a possible indication of illness. Since the person those reports went to was Abby anyway, she could easily get away with it herself. She was a small woman, she reasoned, and her work, while often tiring, was not physically strenuous – she didn’t _need_ nearly as much in the way of calories as some of the hulking grounder men who worked in engineering.

So it was with some surprise to both her and Jackson when Niylah appeared around midday with two trays of food. One she handed to Jackson with a polite nod, and he took it apparently on instinct. The other she held out to Abby.

Abby looked at it. It was not the usual rations. In fact her tray looked very much like it was stacked with what she could only describe as actual _food._ There was a little roll of bread. There were tomatoes. There were _fresh_ greens. There was even...

“Is that _cake?”_ said Jackson, hungrily eyeing the tray.

“Commander’s orders, Doctor Griffin,” said Niylah. “Oh, I almost forgot.” She lifted up a tiny cover, took a single cherry out from underneath it, and with great solemnity, put it on top of the little chunk of cake.

Abby and Jackson both stared at the cherry with something approaching religious reverence. There was a certain amount of fruit grown in the farm, but as it was much scarcer than the staples of vegetables and grains and it could not be induced to bear produce nearly as often, most of it went to the children in the bunker on the basis of greater need.

A lifetime on the Ark had indeed gotten Abby used to eating the blandest of food for the purpose of staying alive rather than for pleasure, but just looking at the cherry was making her mouth water. She swallowed hard.

“I can’t—” she began, but Niylah cut her off.

“ _Commander’s orders_ ,” she repeated firmly, in spite of her smile. “You don’t want me to get in trouble, do you?”

She held out the tray more forcefully and Abby took it. “Thank you,” she said. “And tell Oc—the Commander she has my thanks as well.”

“Happy birthday, Doctor Griffin,” said Niylah, and then took her leave, with Abby staring after her.

“Does _everyone_ know?” she asked Jackson plaintively. “Was there some kind of bulletin sent out that I don’t know about?”

Jackson smiled. “I think people only noticed because of what Kane is doing,” he said.

Abby eyed him suspiciously. “Why, what _is_ he doing?”

“Uh...nothing,” said Jackson and then added hurriedly. “...that I’m allowed to tell you about, anyway. Forget I mentioned it.” He gestured with his own tray vaguely. “I’ll go and look over those test results while I eat,” he said, and scuttled off into the other room.

Abby was left with a feeling of mild trepidation, along with slight amusement that Jackson should be keeping secrets from her on behalf of _Marcus Kane_ , of all people. On the plus side, she was also left with a tray of food that looked much more appetising than anything she had eaten in as long as she could remember.

What the hell. It wasn’t often she got to indulge herself.

Abby ate the cherry first, and was very glad that Jackson had left, because she couldn’t help but let out an extremely undignified moan of pleasure as the tart sweetness exploded on her tongue. She saved the cherry pit and washed it carefully before slipping it into her pocket – she had no idea how long a seed like that would last, but who knew? Maybe she would get to plant it out in the ground one day.

She ate the rest of the food as slowly as she dared, savouring every mouthful, and went back to work with visions of cherry orchards in the sunshine drifting before her eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

It was late in the afternoon when Abby received another unexpected visitor.

It was a little Grounder boy – no, she shouldn’t think of him as that, they were all in this together now, the old Grounder clans and Skaikru alike – who had been apprenticed to engineering. Now that things had settled down and they were all in this for the long term, those from the Ark expected their children to be taught in a school as they had been before, whereas those from the ground balked at what they saw as a waste of time that could be used on learning more practical skills. Since the former Ark citizens were outnumbered greatly by the former Grounders, these separate ways wouldn’t have been a huge logistical problem...except that there had nearly been a small civil war when the clans had decided the Skaikru children weren’t pulling their weight in society as their children were, and demanded equal treatment.

The result had been a compromise. Schooling was mandatory for all until the age of twelve, when it would take a backseat to learning the practical skills that were needed for whatever role the child has shown an aptitude for. Abby still wasn’t exactly happy about the idea of child labour in place of a real education, but the younger kids were kept away from any dangerous work, and were encouraged to help out in a variety of roles before choosing what they wanted to do. Even the former Ark children had welcomed the change – running around helping to fix things or growing food was much more fun than sitting in a classroom hearing about the history of the Earth they wouldn’t even get to see for another five years. And they _were_ learning, Abby had to admit.

The boy who knocked at the door to Medical would have probably spent his life as a blacksmith or a craftsmen of some kind had he lived out his life on the ground in his clan. The Grounders didn’t have complex machinery, engines or vehicles or electronic systems. Down here in the bunker...the boy was already putting his quick mind and nimble fingers towards learning about wiring and system redundancies, about hydraulics and fuels and engine maintenance.

Strange to think that while all of them were trapped down here for years, the end of the world had actually provided this kid with an opportunity to spread his wings.

“Doctor Griffin?” he said, in a thick Sankru accent, looking slightly nervous.

“Yes.” Abby smiled at him. “Can I help you? Is anyone hurt?” It obviously wasn’t serious or they would have called through rather than sending a runner. The boy was covered with engine grease but he didn’t look out of breath or upset. Probably he was just passing by on his way to somewhere else.

“I have something I was told to give you,” he said. “From Engineering.” He held out a small wrapped package, and Abby took it, surprised.

“Oh,” she said. “Thank you. What—”

But the boy had already trotted off back down the corridor without a backwards glance, his task completed. Abby closed the door and wandered back into her office, unwrapping the rags of material that made up the package with slightly nervous curiosity. What could Engineering possibly need to give her?

She wasn’t sure _what_ exactly she had expected, but when she had finally unwrapped the parcel, what she held in her hand was...not what she had expected.

It was a tiny little tree, not three inches high, welded out of metal parts. Abby turned it over and over in her hands, marvelling at the little twisted wire branches, the paper-thin metal leaves. It was exquisite. The base was a little square of metal, and it took a moment for Abby to notice the writing engraved on the bottom:

_Hope Is Everything_

Thelonius. She stared at the tree for a long time, wondering how to feel. That he had remembered her birthday of all things – the gift could hardly be a coincidence – was an unexpected mark of a friendship that had, in truth, died a long time ago. That he had remembered the words she’d said to him, that they had stayed with him in some way and he considered them important...it made her heart ache a little in her chest.

Abby wondered what Thelonius had hope for. Redemption? A second chance? Or perhaps just that an old friend, someone who had once liked and respected him, might think well of him again, even for a moment.

She pressed a finger lightly against one of the tiny metal leaves. The edges weren’t sharp – he had obviously filed them smooth so that you couldn’t cut yourself by handling the tree carelessly. It must have taken a long time.

In the end, she put the little tree up on the shelf next to Jackson’s flowers.

 

* * *

 

 

When Abby had finished for the day and started to make her way back through the seemingly endless corridors and stairs of the bunker to the room she shared with Marcus, she wasn’t surprised somehow to meet him along the way. He was leaning against a wall in a studiously nonchalant way that told her he’d probably been waiting for some time, and fell into step with her as they walked down the last corridor to their room.

“Had a good birthday?” he asked casually, a hint of a smile under his beard that told her he might very well have known about some of her gifts beforehand.

“Yes, actually,” said Abby, smiling back. “I did.”

“I’m glad. I have something for you.”

“Marcus, you really didn’t have to...”

He smiled wider. “I know.” They had reached the door to their room and Marcus punched in the code to gain entrance and turned to her with his hand laid on the door, ready to push it open.

“Close your eyes,” he said.

Abby rolled them instead. “Seriously?”

“Humour me.”

Abby sighed but closed her eyes obediently and heard the door swing open. She allowed Marcus to take her hands and lead her gently into the room, closing the door behind them with a click.

“I thought we could use some more decoration in here,” he said, as he released her hands and turned her gently by the shoulders. “Okay, you can open them now.”

Abby did so, and blinked with sudden vertigo at the sight before her. Even though she was standing in the room she had been living in for months, it took a few moments for her to get her bearings, so unexpected was the vision she had opened her eyes to.

Marcus, standing a little behind her, said: “I hope you don’t mind. I would have asked you first, but it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise then.”

“It’s beautiful,” breathed Abby, finally finding her voice.

It was the Earth. It almost covered one wall of the room; a painting so exquisite it almost looked like a window...and, Abby realised, had been deliberately done to give that impression. Around the edge there was a carefully painted rectangular frame to look as though a window had been cut through the wall itself, looking out onto a view that was impossible as it was familiar to them both.

Space, the same twinkling stars Abby had looked out on ever since she was a girl, and at the bottom of the frame the soft curve of the Earth, the rest of the planet’s hidden bulk stretching far beyond the scope of the  picture. It was as immense and enchanting as she had remembered, wreathed in clouds and a faint haze of atmosphere, the suggestion of vast continents below. Behind it drifted the painted moon, silvery and pockmarked, their old companion in orbit, circling the planet below along with the Ark.

It was an astonishing work of art. It _was_ beautiful, and oddly nostalgic too, like looking through a window into her own past.

“I didn’t paint it myself, of course,” said Marcus quickly. “So it’s a present from everyone, not just me. I just supplied the materials. And the idea.”

“Stop apologising and let me thank you,” said Abby sternly. She turned briefly to kiss him, soft and tender. “I love it.”

She turned back to stare at the shimmering, pale blue curve of the Earth, so real she felt she could almost reach out and touch it, just as she had always imagined back on the Ark too. Behind her, Marcus stepped closer and wrapped his arms gently around her waist, and Abby leaned back against the familiar solid warmth of his body, unable to drag her eyes away from the vision.

Marcus kissed the top of her head softly and murmured: “I wanted to remind you of what it looked like, when we were up there. And...” he hesitated for a moment. “And what Clarke and the others are seeing right now.”

Abby laid her hands over his where they were resting on her stomach, and interlaced their fingers. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

They watched the painted Earth together for a while, both lost in thought. Abby couldn’t help but feel a little pang, knowing that if Clarke were here, as she was supposed to be...doubtless it would have been her daughter that Marcus had commissioned to paint the wall. It was strange, to think of Clarke up there with her friends on the last scrap of their old home, while the rest of her people were huddled in the ground far below. Stranger still to think that their view of the Earth – this sight as familiar and fundamental to Abby as breathing – was one she herself would never see again. The presence of the Earth beneath her feet and over her head had replaced her old vision of it, reality vanquishing the dream. It was a loss she had never quite realised she had been feeling before now, a little void in her heart Marcus had taken it upon himself to fill without her having to ask.

He was good at that.

“There’s one more thing, actually,” said Marcus, his voice breaking into her thoughts as he released his embrace and turned her gently to face him. “This one _is_ just from me.  But I need to turn out the lights first.”

Abby raised her eyebrows, a smirk tugging at her lips. “Oh really?” she said. “ _That_ kind of a present, is it?”

Marcus chuckled. “I didn’t mean it like that.” He walked over to the light switch on the wall, and stopped next to it, glancing back at her and hesitating. If Abby didn’t know better she might have thought he was nervous.

“It needs to be dark so you can see it,” he said.

Abby frowned as he finally reached for the switch and plunged the room into darkness. “How can... _oh_.”

He had brought her the stars.

They glittered from every surface, scattered in their hundreds across the ceiling and down the walls, in brilliant clusters and complex constellations, an infinity of tiny glowing pinpricks of light in the inky blackness.

Abby could hardly breathe as she turned slowly, taking it all in, her mouth slack with amazement. She was so entranced that when Marcus spoke again, she almost jumped at the sound.

“The ones on the walls are just random,” he said a little apologetically, his voice floating out of the darkness. “But the ones on the ceiling are an accurate representation of what the night sky would look like if we were standing outside. Or at least as accurate as I could get it around the shape of the room.”

“It’s incredible...” murmured Abby. “Marcus...how...?”

“Some astronomy books, some lessons from a friend of Indra, a lot of chemicals and a lot of practice,” he said. “Oh, and a few hours today standing on a chair getting a crick in my neck. The substance is almost invisible but it absorbs the light during the day and glows in the dark. At least for a little while, they’ll fade over time, I’m afraid.”

It wasn’t the most romantic of speeches, and he was babbling just a bit, but Abby didn’t care. She just stared and stared at the impossible vision above her. Even the Ark had benefitted from windows with a spectacular view, but down here in the bunker it had been months, _months_ since any of them had seen the outside world. Since Abby had seen the _sky_...

She crossed the room to the bed and sat down on the edge, her head still raised to stare at the wonder above her, and after a few seconds she let herself drop backwards so that she was lying flat on her back, and she could look as long as she liked without her neck aching. She heard Marcus pad across the room to join her, and after a moment his weight made the bed creak slightly as he lay down beside her.

Now that her eyes were adjusting a little to the dark, Abby could tilt her head and see the outline of his features next to her, just make out the smile on his face. She snuggled closer to him and he slid an arm underneath her, drawing her flush with his body.

“That’s the Big Dipper up there,” he said, pointing with his free hand. “That group that looks like a saucepan. And the stars around it make up Ursa Major, the great bear.”

“It looks like a saucepan,” Abby conceded. “But I don’t see a bear.”

“There’s Ursa Minor a little bit over to the left too.”

“Did you learn all of these while you put them up there?”

“I thought I might as well know the names.” His finger moved as he spoke. “If you go down a little, that one there is Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. And the one just further along there is Deneb, which is the part of the constellation Cygnus.” He traced a cross-like shape in the air, connecting the stars.

“Ok, now you’re just showing off.”

Marcus chuckled. “There is a point to this,” he said. “See that little bright one right there, just to the right of that patch by the light fitting?”

“Mmm?”

“That’s the Ark.”

Abby stared at the tiny glowing dot, just feet away and yet so infinitely distant. A wave of emotion rose within her, squeezing her heart and constricting her throat. She swallowed hard, blinking back the sudden tears that pricked at her eyes.

She wondered if Clarke remembered what day it was.

The little sob that tore from her chest was silent, but there was no concealing it from Marcus, pressed against him as she was. She quickly scrambled up to sit upright on the bed, wiping the tears from her eyes impatiently. Marcus followed her, catching her shoulders in his hands as he sat up too, his face a mask of concern in the darkness.

“Abby, I’m so sorry,” he murmured, caressing her shoulders gently. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, no, that’s not...” Abby threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “It’s _perfect._ Thank you.”

She felt Marcus relax a little, and he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close. Abby nuzzled into the crook of his neck as he stroked her hair gently, loving him so powerfully in this moment that she knew no words would ever be able to express it.

“Thank you,” she whispered again. “I’ve had the stars my whole life. I...I _missed_ them.”

Marcus slackened his embrace enough to look into her eyes, brushing the tears tenderly from her face. He rested his forehead against hers.

“I know,” he said softly. “We’ll see them again soon, Abby. I promise.”

* * *

 


End file.
